Big names and rising stars from the restaurant world joined us to feast on Truffled Baron Bigod, fig & walnut toast, rooftop honey and Brown butter & blood orange ice cream sandwiches last night. Another quiet night in at Phaidon Towers? No, not really. Instead we were at Robin Gill's award-winning restaurant, The Dairy in Clapham, London to celebrate the publication of the third edition of Where Chefs Eat.

James Knappett, Sandia Chang, party guests and Robin Gill and his wife from The Dairy - photo Bonnie Beadle

The book’s author Joe Warwick was on fine form (as usual) all night, greeting the likes of Andrea Petrini, Claude Bosi, Fergus Henderson and Rusell Norman like old friends - which, of course, they are. Joe also revealed in his speech just how the idea for the book came about - via a chance meeting in Lapland, of all places, with Phaidon’s queen of the cookery books, Emilia Terragni.

See Myers, Tom from The Marksman Zeren Wilson and John Rotherham - photo Bonnie Beadle

"This happened because I ended up in Lapland thanks to Andrea Petrini. It was a Cook It Raw thing and John Lanchester (also present at the launch) was there too. We ended up staying in a lodge with this lady here, (Emilia) and she said we want to do a restaurant guide. I said I don’t want it to be anything like the 50 Best (Warwick launched the 50 Best Awards when he was editor of Restaurant magazine) and it's not!

"Phaidon make beautiful books and it’s a beautiful book but it’s also a useful book – for me as well." Joe added that he wouldn’t have been able to do it without the chefs, of course, and thanked them all.

Fergus Henderson of St. John and party guests - photo Bonnie Beadle

Other guests from the food world included blogger Clerkenwell Boy, food and drink design gurus Bompas & Parr, Jon Rotheram from The Marksman, Rohit Ghai from Jamavar, Christine Hayes, editor of BBC Good Food, novelist John Lanchester, Richard Vine from Bloomberg and Richard Granleese from The Guardian.

Everyone got a great book to go home with and possibly a late start this morning courtesy of the delicious martinis by Hepple gin and the Hackney-brewed craft beer by 40FT.

Andrea Petrini - photo Bonnie Beadle

The final word went to our very own Emilia Terragni, the publisher who came up with the Where Chefs Eat concept. Emilia told everyone how the book just keeps getting bigger and bigger – this new edition features 570 destinations. 70 countries across six continents.

"The book is growing and it’s becoming more and more popular. I really want to thank all the chefs in this book because without them there would not be any book. It's a book made in the industry, by the industry but for a large, large public. So let's celebrate what we are doing and thank you to everyone who participated with their recommendations.”

The Dairy, Clapham, London the venue for our Where Chefs Eat launch - photo Bonnie Beadle

Phaidon is the premier global publisher of the creative arts with over 1,500 titles in print. We work with the world's most influential artists, chefs, writers and thinkers to produce innovative books on art, photography, design, architecture, fashion, food and travel, and illustrated books for children. Phaidon is headquartered in London and New York City.Read more